Michael Donkor: ‘Representation feels more nuanced to me now’
The teacher turned novelist on building a good yarn, leaving London for Lisbon, and what his former pupils might think of his sex scenes
‘At 80, I still have a lot of anger’: American poet Nikki Giovanni
The activist and poet Nikki Giovanni talks about fighting racial segregation, dealing with mobsters – and why her sense of outrage is undiminished
‘Look at your country! It’s amazing’: Armistead Maupin on moving to London
The Tales of the City author made his name as the bard of San Francisco, but now calls Clapham home. He talks about becoming a British citizen, his new novel set in the Cotswolds and missing California weed
‘There’s a double layer of nostalgia’: David Nicholls on One Day returning to the book charts
The Netflix adaptation starring Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod has catapulted the novelist’s romcom back into the bestsellers, 15 years after it was first published
‘Indescribably filthy’: historian Emily Cockayne on the letters that landed her a film deal
As Wicked Little Letters with Olivia Colman hits cinemas, the associate professor who unearthed the real-life case explains how petty grievances and prejudices got out of hand in 1920s Sussex
Billy Dee Williams: ‘At this stage in my life, I don’t need to apologise for anything’
The actor, best known for playing Lando in the Star Wars movies, talks about his new memoir, a life on screen and why he couldn’t ‘care less’ about becoming a political spokesperson
Gift of the gab: how to become a supercommunicator
For some, the art of conversation remains elusive and awkward. But others find it easy to put people at their ease and steer their way through difficult topics without giving offence. Charles Duhigg asks how they do it – and whether we can get better at it
Author Peter Ackroyd: ‘You eat a great deal of knowledge. You sick it up. And then you start again’
The great biographer and novelist, now 74, shows no sign of slowing. Now he’s produced a history of the English soul, and declares himself ‘eager to go on’
BBC disinformation reporter Marianna Spring: ‘My approach to fear is to try to make sense of it’
The broadcaster on dealing with abuse, the power of the Barbie movie, and watching Spurs with her dad
Georgi Gospodinov: ‘There was a culture of silence – it was safer not to say what you think’
The Bulgarian author and International Booker prize winner on his newfound fame, how communism influenced his style of writing, and winning praise from footballer Hristo Stoichkov
Behrouz Boochani: ‘I was not a victim. I was a fighter’
In a bohemian corner of Wellington, the former Manus Island detainee has found his way through writing and walking – despite, he insists, being properly lazy
Author Khaled Hosseini on book bans in the US: ‘It betrays students’
Hosseini’s The Kite Runner has joined a growing list of titles ‘under review’ or challenged by school boards, with nearly 5,894 books banned from July 2021 to June 2023
Sebastian Barry: ‘When you get past 60, you do feel a licence to write fearlessly’
The Irish novelist and playwright on the positives of ageing, his struggles with depression and a golden age of Irish writing
‘We all lost. That’s where hatred leads’: 10 years after her son was beheaded, Diane Foley on why she met one of his killers
In 2014, terrorists took US photojournalist James Foley into the Syrian desert, decapitated him, then shocked the world with video footage of his death. His mother talks about her doomed attempts to save him, her mission to help today’s hostages, and the meeting that helped her to heal
Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov: ‘I felt guilty writing fiction in a time of war’
When Putin attacked, the novelist switched his focus to journalism. Two years on, he talks about his new crime series, life in Kyiv, and fiction as an escape from reality